Menace at the Christmas Market: A Novella in the Murder on Location Series by Sara Rosett

Author:Sara Rosett [Rosett, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“Harriet Hayden wasn’t at the Royal Palm Resort today,” Alex said when he called me the next afternoon.

“Really?” I’d filled Alex in on what had happened last night as soon as I arrived back at my cottage. He had agreed to drop by the Royal Palm Resort. “Any excuse for a break from the family togetherness is a good excuse,” he’d said.

I’d spent the morning on the Internet, looking for evidence that Harriet had been online recently. She had active accounts on all the big social media sites, which featured her and her books, but none of the accounts had been updated within the last few weeks. I checked the feeds, browsing backward in time, and discovered that the gaps in posts weren’t that unusual for Harriet. She often went several weeks, sometimes a month or more without posting. Then she would put up a message, something along the lines of, “Out of the writing cave. Book is done!” In mid-November, she had posted a flurry of updates about looking forward to her upcoming trip, then nothing.

Alex continued, “The front desk wouldn’t confirm that she’s a guest, but the bartender knew her. He said Harriet mentioned returning home to England soon, but she also wanted to visit La Gomera before she left. That’s another one of the islands.”

I smiled, knowing that if the front desk wouldn’t answer his questions, Alex would have used some of his location scouting techniques, which often involved an end run around red tape, to get answers. “So the bartender has seen her?”

“Yes, said she’d been in for drinks almost every night for the last three or four weeks. I figure she’s either island hopping for the day, or she’s checked out, and the resort doesn’t want to give out info on their guests.”

“Well, that’s a relief. So the police were right.” I told him about my morning online. “I was beginning to think that Gina might be right about Harriet because she certainly hasn’t been posting updates about her trip on her Facebook newsfeed.”

“Maybe she’s been writing,” Alex said.

“I hope so.”

“I’m heading back to the resort to see if I can spot Harriet myself. Happy hour is only a few hours away.”

“Do you have time for that?”

“Sure,” he said easily. “Any word from Louise?”

“She called me earlier today. Gina is still in the hospital. No change in her condition. Louise spoke to Gina’s coworker at the market. She says that the only customer Gina was especially interested in was Harriet. In fact, Gina was so serious about her search that she missed work a couple of times. Her friend covered for her.”

“How, um, stable is this Gina?” Alex asked.

“I’ve been asking myself that question since yesterday. When she wasn’t sneaking around following me, she seemed fine. I got the impression that she’s usually pretty timid, but this thing with Harriet, well, she’s very adamant about it.”

“Sounds a bit…obsessive.”

“I know.” I sighed. “But she’s in the hospital after being poisoned.”

Alex said, “Hopefully, I’ll run Harriet to ground tonight.

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